Keep sharing good news without ads.
Bro. Bill Nichols
Okay, we're ready? Yes, sir. We're going to begin this morning with Psalms 1, for Psalm 1. And I have tentatively labeled my series of Psalms as Righteous Living in a World Gone Mad. Before I begin, I'm going to read 2 Timothy 3, 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
This Psalm is a Psalm given for instruction in righteousness, or at least that's the way I see it. And that's just my classification, not the Lord's. He didn't put a label on it and say, Righteous Living in a World Gone Mad.
That was me. Let us pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us again together, that we may worship you and that we may honor you. We pray that you will be with us through the service, through all the services today.
Bless us and keep us. We pray that we will go into your word with your Holy Spirit guiding us, so that we understand what you want us to know, and help us to know that each one of us have a different need.
And you are able to take your word and apply it to our need, whatever it may be, and however it is delivered. Bless us and keep us. Go with us this day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So the way of the righteous and the way of the ungodly are contrasted here in Psalm 1.
This is another Psalm giving instruction for righteous living in a fallen world. I said another because last week we dealt with Psalm 73, which was instructions for righteousness. And we read Psalm 43, 47, I'll get it right in a minute.
73 and 37 were the two that we dealt with last week. One we studied and one we read. So we're gonna do Psalm 1, verse one this morning. The way of the righteous. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
The first thing we need to note is pointed out by Charles Spurgeon. It is blessed, it is not. It is not. Blessed is the king. Blessed is the scholar. Blessed is the rich. But blessed is the man. This blessedness is as obtainable by the poor, the forgotten, and the obscure, as by those whose names figure in history and are trumpeted by fame.
That was Spurgeon. Blessed is the man speaks of happiness. Happiness and blessedness are in some ways synonyms. If you're blessed, you're happy. And if you're happy, you must have been blessed. The blessedness and contentment of life of a man or a woman who is right with God.
Blessed is the man or the woman that is right with God. The righteous man will be a blessed man. He will be a happy man. Now, speaking of happy, there are three things, there are more than three things, but there are at least three things that a righteous man cannot do and at the same time be happy.
I want to give me my three, and then you can add your three. I took my three out of this verse. One, take counsel from the ungodly. Two, participate in sinful activity. Three, sit in the seat of the scornful.
He can do these things at times, but the indwelling Holy Spirit will give him no peace, no comfort, and no happiness until or if he repents. There is a way that the righteous man will not walk, a path he will not stand in, and a seat he will not sit in.
Adam Park made a comment and I took the comment and I'm gonna, before I read the comment, I'm going to tell you that I do not totally, totally 100 agree with his wording of the very last sentence of this quote, but I'm gonna read it anyhow, and I'm gonna let you kind of stew on that and help me when the time comes.
But the first part is very true. The great lesson to be learned from the whole is, sin is progressive. One evil propensity or act leads to another. He who acts by bad counsel may soon do evil deeds, and he who abandons himself to evil doings may end his life in total apostasy from God.
Now, that's what I'm not 100 sure that I agree with. He's talking about a righteous man here. A righteous man is a man that is right with God. You can't be right with God unless God called you to be right with him.
And if you are called, if you are righteous, I don't really believe you can end up your life in total apostasy. I believe that what will happen is, the Lord will chastise you. He will not leave you comfortable.
He will give you no peace. He will continue to act upon you until you repent. Yes, sir. I will read the quote all the way through from the beginning. The great lesson to be learned from the whole is, sin is progressive.
One evil propensity or act leads to another. He who acts by bad counsel may soon do evil deeds, and he who abandons himself to evil doings may end his life in total apostasy from God. Now, that's the way he left it.
You have a comment or a? The great lesson to be learned from the whole is. Yes, yes, the whole of this verse. Yes. That's right, and that's why I quote it because I agree with the first half of it. The first half is, it is a great lesson.
Sin is progressive. One evil deed does lead to another. All of that is true, but. That's right. Yes, but you know what? It is, but if the question, the way to answer that question is, if you are there in total apostasy from God at the time you die, you probably were never his in the first place.
Yes. I think the federalist stand with sinners. I think we're standing around a third, a historical, a higher level of apostasy, like an atheist, or maybe an agnostic, certainly an atheist, and he's saying, don't sit, do not sit down in a penitent fellowship because it won't be a good influence at all.
And I think you probably are exactly right that that is the way that we should look at this verse. People that we should not hang around with. But you do understand, you can get bad counsel from yourself.
We'll get into that a little bit later. We're not done with this verse. To be clear, what we're speaking of is ungodly counsel. A righteous man knows how to stay away from ungodly counsel. You don't hang around with the ungodly.
You don't take advice from them. And he is wise enough to recognize that some of that ungodly counsel can come from his own mind. If you are in the past have had dealings with ungodly counsel, your mind can bring ungodly counsel to you through that.
So it doesn't have to be a different person. It can be you. And that's why you wanna stay away from ungodly counsel to begin with. You don't wanna listen to it. I turn on the TV and I hear so much ungodly counsel that I turn it off and I refuse to listen to it anymore.
I just don't listen to the news anymore because we get so much ungodly counsel. Two, participating in sinful activity. That's something else we should not do. We should not participate in sinful activities.
Brother David said, we don't go down to the town square and hang around with those that are being sinful, pretending to be one of them. The righteous man is not afraid to take the road less traveled because he knows that the road less traveled leads to blessing, happiness, and eternal life.
In Matthew 7, starting at verse 13, he says this. Enter ye at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at. The well-traveled road is not the one that you want to be on.
14, because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth to life and few there be that find it. So it's good to be traveling on the less traveled road. Three, sitting in the seat of the scornful.
Now it's easy enough to criticize Christians, but instead of criticizing other Christians, we as Christians, we should indeed be proud to follow Jesus Christ. Charles Spurgeon said this way better than I can, so I'm just gonna read it to you.
Be out and out for him. Be out and out for him. Unfurl your collars. Never hide them, but nail them to the mask. And say to all who ridicule the saints, if you have any ill will for the followers of Christ, pour them out upon me.
But know this, you shall hear it, whether you like it or not, I love Christ. That I thought was beautiful. In spite of what you, the reaction you may get, we can't be afraid to say, I love Christ. Sometimes we are.
Sometimes when we're hanging around an evil company, we don't wanna say I love Christ, but we should always. And the fourth thing, well, I took that down as the fourth thing. What I added is this. If as Adam Park said, one truly ends his life in total apostasy from God, it's fair to conclude that he was not righteous in the first place.
That you're not talking about a righteous man if he winds up in total apostasy from God. Well, that's verse one. Any other comments or questions or additions? Verse two. But his delight, whose delight?
The righteous man. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, does he meditate day and night? Now in verse one, we looked at three things a righteous man can not do and still be blessed. Now for some things he can and he will do.
That righteous man delights in the entire word of God. That includes the living word, which is Jesus Christ. But it also includes the entire written word. That's both the Old and the New Testament. That's where his delight is.
And again, Charles Furgin made a salient point. Man must delight in something. Or he says it this way. Man must have some delight, some supreme pleasure. His heart was never meant to be a vacuum. If not filled with the best things, it will be filled with the unworthy and disappointing.
That's something to consider as you decide what you're gonna sit down this afternoon and read. Or what you're gonna sit down and watch on TV. Now, Brother David, I think I'm gonna watch part of the Memorial Golf Tournament.
But I also think I'm gonna mute the sound and work on next week's lesson or take a nap. All of those are good things. Yes, I will probably do all of that. But I thought it was just so good. Man must have some delight, some supreme pleasure.
His heart was never meant to be a vacuum. If not filled with the best things, it will be filled with the unworthy and the disappointing. Now, beyond that, the righteous man ponders the word of God. He does not just hear it and forget it.
He thinks about it. Christians should meditate on God's word. And again, Charles Spurgeon, many lack because they only read and do not meditate. It is not only the reading that does us good, but the soul inwardly feeding on it and digesting it.
A preacher once told me that he had read the Bible through 20 times on his knees and had never found the doctrine of election there. And Spurgeon goes on to say, very likely not. This is a most uncomfortable position in which to read.
If he had sat down in an easy chair, he would have been better able to understand it. So you don't have to put yourself in a position of uncomfort to read the scripture. And if you do, you will probably be focusing on your discomfort rather than what you should be focusing on, the word.
So I thought an easy chair is a very good place, provided you don't go to sleep. Meditate, but a word to the wise. Take this as a warning. The goal of most meditation, yoga for example, is to empty the mind.
That's why they have these little words that they repeat over and over again to kind of empty their mind. This is a dangerous practice because an empty mind presents an open invitation for deception or to a demonic spirit.
But in Christian meditation, the goal is not to empty the mind, but it's to fill the mind with the word of God, leaving no room for demonic spirits. We do this by reading and carefully thinking about each word and each phrase in the passage, then applying it to your life and then praying to the Lord to illuminate.
I couldn't resist going to Matthew 12, verses 43 and 44. And I know this is a little bit out of context, but I'm gonna read it. Anyhow, actually, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and up on the occasion where he had been casting out demons and the Pharisees said, well, he's casting out demons.
He is demonic himself. He's casting out demons. And here's what Jesus told them. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he, that's the unclean spirit, walketh through dry places, seeking rest and findeth none.
Then he saith, I will return into my house from which I came out. And when he has come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. And verse 45, then goeth he and taketh with himself 10 other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there.
And the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. Just something to think about. Verse three, Psalm one, verse three. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.
His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Now, verse one began, blessed is the man. Verse three tells us how this man is blessed. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.
A tree planted by a river thrives. And why does it thrive? Because it's got all the water available to it it could possibly have. It's not like the trees up on the hills in Texas in the summertime when you first see the leaves start turning a little bit light green.
And then the next year, there's no leaves at all. And the next year the tree is dead because it doesn't have an ample supply of water. A tree planted by a river doesn't suffer all that. It has water available to it, an abundant supply of water.
A righteous man thrives when he has an abundant supply of God's word. So when will you thrive? You will thrive when you are occupying yourself with the Holy Scripture. The righteous man bears fruit, such as the fruit of the Spirit.
Such as the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians lists these for us in Galatians 5, 22 and 23. It lists the fruits of the Spirit. They are joy, peace, love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance against such there is no law.
So all of those things are good. Love is good, joy is good, peace, loving, long suffering, gentleness, faith, goodness, meekness, temperance. There's no godly law against any of those. Fruit comes naturally from this tree because it is planted by the rivers of water.
It is abiding in the ultimate life source. And what is the ultimate life source? Jesus. John 15, five says, I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.
For without me, you can do nothing. But as we abide with him, take care to remember that fruit has a season. Apples, apple trees don't bloom in January and bear fruit in February. There's a season for the fruit.
Sometimes people become discouraged when they begin to live a righteous life and they don't immediately see fruit. The fruit that they see, they need to wait for until it's brought forth. God will bring forth the fruit on his timing, not on yours.
And if you try to intervene in somebody's life by presenting the gospel to them and they seem to receive it and you are really happy and then you see no change, don't be discouraged, just wait a while.
The seed has been planted. If they belong to the Lord, he will bring them to him in the right time. And the last part of that verse is, and whatsoever he does shall prosper. That doesn't mean that life will be a bed of roses for the righteous man.
It doesn't mean that everything he does will make him rich and comfortable. But it does mean that God will bring forth something good out of everything that happens to him. Even the difficulties of this life, even in those difficulties, he shall prosper.
That's true though of the godly. That's not true of the ungodly. Now, the next part of this verse or this passage deals with the way of the ungodly. We've been looking at the way of the godly. The way of the ungodly is a dangerous place to be.
Everything that you can say about the righteous man, stable as a tree, continue alive, nourished, fruitful, alive, prospers, that's not true concerning the ungodly. Even though it sometimes may seem that the ungodly have these things even more than the righteous, but that's not so.
Any of these things are fleeting in the life of the ungodly. He can have stability only for a while. He can be rich only for a while. And indeed, that while may be all of his life, but that while is a short period of time compared to the period of time that he really has in front of him.
And what is that? That's an eternity. It could be said, ultimately, they don't have any of it at all. Psalm 1 -4, the ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Dead, withered, ready to be blown away by the wind, Spurgeon said, intrinsically worthless, dead, unserviceable, without substance and easily carried away.
There's a huge difference between a tree and chaff. Verse five, therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. The ungodly have no real substance.
As Daniel told King Belshazzar, they are weighted in the balances and are found wanting. But look at this. Sinners shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous. They won't stand on the day of judgment, but they will also not stand in the congregation of the righteous.
What does that mean? Strong, faithful teaching will attract the righteous, but it will repel the ungodly. Verse six, for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
And so now we're to the conclusion of the whole thing. The way of righteousness, the way of the righteous or the way of the ungodly. Which road are you on? Are you on the road to hell or are you on the road to heaven?
Are you on the well-traveled road or are you on the road less traveled? And I put Matthew 7, 13 in again. Enter ye at the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at.
That's the broad way. That's the well-traveled road. That's the road which many people enter because straight is the gate. That means narrow, hard means hard. And narrow is the way which leadeth to life and few there be that find it.
I've got two more quotes. The righteous can have their peace because a loving God in heaven knows their way and will preserve them. And here is a better quote from Charles Spurgeon about the same topic.
Or as the Hebrew has it, yet more fully the Lord is knowing the way of the righteous. He is constantly looking on their way and though it may be often in midst and darkness yet the Lord knoweth it. So don't think that you're on a path that the Lord can't see.
Don't think that the Lord can't help you through the hard places. Don't think that the hard places are not there at the design of the Lord to teach you something or to teach somebody else something. But we know that the Lord knows our way and he will protect us and defend us.
And in the end, he will bring us home to him and we will live forever with him a life eternal. And that's it for the day unless we have some questions or comments or additions. A heavenly experience in the congregation now at this time, is that what you're alluding to?
Yeah, the center will not continue to come to a place which teaches the word of the Lord. It not only attracts the righteous, it repels the unrighteous. It repels the ungodly. They won't continue. They can't keep coming forever because it doesn't do anything for them except convict them.
And no one wants to be convicted over and over and over again. So we either do one or two things. What do we do? We either change if we're his or we go somewhere else if we're not. But that doesn't mean that everybody that goes somewhere else is not.
Don't read this too broad. Just because somebody leaves one congregation and goes to another does not mean that they are unworthy in the sense, in a greater sense than any of us are unworthy. We could say, I could say broadly, all of us are unworthy.
Yes. Yes, in the judgment, that's in heaven. And here in this church congregation is what I think I agree with you. It's both. So we have a little tiny bit of heaven on earth. Just a glimmer, not what we will have.
And not all that leave don't wind up some of the ones that leave wind up going to the Lord in some other place. They just may not fit. Sometimes they go in order to save the other church. To save the other church.
To help the other church. People do that all the time. Yeah, Dr. MacArthur said the same thing about keeping his ministry in Southern California. Why in the world would you keep that ministry in Southern California amongst all of the evil?
Buddhist temple. Yeah, just right next door to it. And his answer was, what better place to minister? So it is, it's a wonderful thing. Anything else?
That's interesting because a lot of, you know, every human life has value. Because every man is, you know.
There's a bit of good in everyone.
The Bible is saying the ungodly are like cat. There is no intrusive value in cat. And so Spurgeon is pretty strong. He just says that those people are intrinsically worthless.
Intrinsically worthless, dead, unserviceable.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Yes, we can't do anything on our own without Christ. It very well might be. It is great that we have it. And of course he finishes that quote with there's a huge difference between a tree and chaff. Yeah, that's how he ended that.
And that's what he was talking about in meditating. You gotta take every word, you gotta meditate about it, think about it, apply it to your life. Ask the Lord to eliminate it and give you understanding about what it is that he's trying to tell you or that he is going to tell you.
Okay, most gracious heavenly father, thank you for this day and thank you for this wonderful opportunity to meet together. Thank you for giving us the technology to reach out to people that cannot be here in person.
Bless them and bless us. Bless our country. Bring it closer to you if it's your will. And if it's not, come quickly. In Jesus name we pray, amen.